Sensor-Packed Gloves Let Imogen Heap Make Music With Her Hands

Symphony conductors are used to hearing music whenever they make gestures with their hands, but a new pair of gloves debuted by Imogen Heap at TEDGlobal last night could take the practice even further. The indie chanteuse actually created sounds using only her hands thanks to the gloves, which were equipped with an accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscopes, some other sensors and wireless mics.

Heap, who won a Grammy for her 2009 album Ellipse and was featured on the famous Garden State Soundtrack with her band Frou Frou, could create loops simply by opening her hands and turn down the volume by makng the "shh" gesture among other nifty tricks.

The idea for the gloves was sparked by research at MIT and brought to life over two years of development by Heap and scientists at The University of West England.